April 2004
IN THIS MONTH'S ISSUE:
Do you dream in pictures?
Luminous Parrot Technologies introduces Dream in Pictures - the easy, fast, powerful, all-in-one photo software for people who want their photo hobby to feel like fun. Dream in Pictures provides the most popular photo organizing and editing tools and slideshow builder, 3-D gallery, mosaic maker, picture puzzle games, screensaver, printed albums and sharing through email. You can download and use the trial version at http://luminousparrot.com and then take advantage of the introductory pricing by purchasing and obtaining your registration key online at http://store.luminousparrot.com - powered by the Adhost Merchant E-Commerce Shopping Cart.
Last week Google announced it is testing a beta version of its own free search-based webmail service called Gmail. This is interesting news for several reasons. First, Google intends to offer 1 GB of free email storage to all users, which is about 100 times the storage that Yahoo or Hotmail allow. This extra storage will allow people to save all of their email. Google is also offering a search tool so that users can search for specific emails based upon a keyword or conversation topic.
While Google will not have pop-up ads or banners in its Gmail service, it will have contextual ads placed in email messages relating to the topic being discussed. How will it do this? Here's what Google has to say:
| "The matching of ads to content is a completely automated process performed by computers using the same technology that powers the Google AdSense program. This technology already places targeted ads on thousands of sites across the web by quickly analyzing the content of pages and determining which ads are most relevant to them. No humans read your email to target the ads, and no email content or other personally identifiable information is ever provided to advertisers." |
Privacy advocates are up in arms over Google's intention to scan all emails and serve up ads accordingly. Critics say it is an outrageous violation of users' privacy even if the data is not transmitted or personally identifiable.
Gmail is still in beta testing so we'll see what happens over the next few months. In the mean time, you can find out more about Gmail at http://gmail.google.com/.
This month Adhost's Marketing Director Beth Sullivan recommends a fun event for all of you pet-lovers out there. The 15th Annual Tuxes & Tails Celebrity and Pet Fashion Show & Auction is happening Saturday, April 24th at the Washington Convention Center. Have dinner and bid on great stuff like a week's stay at a condo in Whistler BC. C'mon it will be fun and besides it benefits a good cause. Where else will you get the chance to check out your favorite Seattle television and radio personalities and see how many of them look like their pets?
For tickets or to volunteer for the event:
